The new Salvia cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the inventor, Luen Miller, in Royal Oaks, Calif. The objective of the breeding program was to produce new Salvia varieties with dense plant habits, branch flexibility, strong garden performance, in a range of flower colors. The open pollination resulting in this new variety was made during April of 2009.
The seed parent is the unpatented, Salvia microphylla ‘Hot Lips’. The pollen parent is unknown as it was an open pollination breeding program. The new variety was identified as a potentially interesting selection in June 2010, at a commercial nursery in Royal Oaks, Calif.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘Little Kiss’ by terminal vegetative cuttings was first performed during Summer of 2010, at a commercial nursery in Royal Oaks, Calif. Subsequent propagation has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type on successive generations.